From Geek to Freak - gaining muscle

From Geek to Freak - gaining muscle

Introduction Occam's Protocol claims Preparation

Measure body composition Get the supplements Exercises

Workout A (machine option) Workout B (machine option) Determine starting weights (p. 215) Schedule Diet

How to track your food intake Calories Protein Drink water - 2.8% of your body weight Carbs GOMAD - Gallon Of Milk A Day Tim's favorite meal Cost Sleep My results - does Occam's Protocol work?

Compliance Occam's Protocol Results Occam's Protocol conclusions From Geek to Freak (for advanced trainees)

Supplements ExercisesUPDATE I presented a talk on this topic, comparing Occam's Protocol with P90X, at the 2011 Quantified Self Conference. Slides from the talk are available at Slideshare - P90x vs. Occam's Protocol as described by Tim Ferriss in 4-Hour Body.

Subscribe to page updates using this RSS feedIntroduction

The 4-Hour Body, pages 181-224.Tim Ferriss comes from a family of lightly muscled men. Four DNA tests with 3 different companies (2 with 23andme) confirmed that he's "not genetically pre-programmed to gain a lot of muscular mass". The chapter is an update of his 2005 routine that he posted at Bodybuilding.com.

The information below is from the book, which fills in some details missing from Bodybuilding.com. It's also rearranged in the order that Tim recommends a new trainee should go through, as opposed to the chronological order in the book:

1. Occam's Protocol (for beginners)

2. From Geek To Freak (what Tim, a conditioned athlete, did in 2005 to gain 34 pounds of muscle)

You can buy The 4-Hour Body on Amazon. Some people have asked whether I may infringe copyright by quoting so much. I believe Tim made available most of the info in his blog already, I give full credit to him, I'm releasing my own contributions under a CC license, and others are reproducing way more without adding their own experience. However, if there is a problem, please contact me.

Occam's Protocol claims

Bodybuilders on the boybuilding.com forums are generally of the opinion that gaining 34lbs of muscle in a month is nearly impossible, unless one is at an artificially low weight, and has exceptional genetics. The commonly-cited example of Casey Viator had both these traits; plus, Casey was paid for each pound of muscle he gained.

For Occam's Protocol (the "simplified" version of From Geek to Freak), Ferriss claims at page 195 of 4HB:

"In just over four weeks, Neil [Strauss], who'd never been able to gain weight, gained 10 pounds of muscle and grew from 125 to 135 pounds, a near 10% increase in total body mass"-- The 4-Hour Body, p. 195

Note that Neil's grow means no fat gain! If you read the Diet section below, this claim will appear pretty fantastic.

Preparation

Goal (Occam's Protocol I, p. 196):

to apply the Minimum Effective Dose necessary to trigger muscular growth mechanisms, and then channel food preferentially into muscle tissue during overfeeding, as safely as possible.

Measure body composition

Get a body composition scale. After you have the scale, get a DXA (formerly DEXA) imaging appointment to determine your body composition. Centers in the San Francisco Bay Area:

Premiere Scan, San Jose. $79 for the first scan, $59 for the followup. Yelp link. Based on my own experience, they don't provide left-right body muscle breakdown. I was satisfied with them. The machine they use is a GE Lunar Prodigy.

Body Composition Center, Redwood City. $69. 5-star Yelp reviews as of Nov 2013. Recommended by Tim. Based on my own experience, they do provide left-right body muscle breakdown. Results are nearly identical to PremiereScan. The facility is older and much smaller than Premiere Scan.

Sunnyvale Imaging Center, Sunnyvale. No information about cost. Yelp reviews complain about MRI scans. No word on DXA.

Immediately after undergoing the DXA scan, measure your body composition on the scale, and note its offsets.

On the other hand, note that such scales use the bioelectrical impedance analysis method, which is sensitive to the amount of water you've been drinking between measurements. Tim mentions being able to "make my bodyfat percentage jump almost 1% in five minutes by drinking two liters of water in between measurements". I've also seen, for a total weight gain of 5lbs morning vs. evening, an increase in body fat of 3% and a drop of muscle mass of 2% at the end of the day, after eating several times and drinking 2 cups of milk and 1.5L of tea.

Tim recommends the following protocol for largely avoiding the hydration issue:

Immediately upon waking, drink 1.5 liters (about 50 fluid ounces) of cold water - ensure that water temperature is the same day to day - and wait 30 minutes.Urinate and then test bodyfat using bio-impedance. Do not eat or drink anything else before testing.

Get the supplements

Even though Occam's Protocol "works without any supplementation whatsoever" (p. 208), Tim recommends the following supplements for the daily regimen:

1. Cissus quadrangularis - 2,400mg 3 times a day 30 minutes prior to meals, for a maximum of 7,200mg/day for ~72kg (~160lb) of lean body mass), "to minimize fat gain" (covered in the "Damage Control" and "The Four Horsemen" chapters).

Reviews indicate it's great for joint pain Tim talks about CQ in "X-Factor: Cissus Quadrangularis", around page 121.

GNC has it, manufactured by USPlabs as SupperCissus RX, 150 800mg capsules (GNC has no other manufacturers for it). Vitamin Shoppe has it but in 1000mg capsules. Rite Aid and Walgreens don't have it.

2. Alpha-lipoic acid (300mg, 30 minutes before each whole-food meal), "to minimize fat gain". GNC and Trader Joe's have it in stores.

3. L-glutamine (ConsumerLab, Wikipedia): 10 grams every 2 hours until reaching 80g for an initial 5-day loading period, for potential intestinal repair rather than risking suboptimal food absorption. After the loading period, you can optionally consume 10-30 grams post-workout to speed repair and help prevent soreness. "Powder is easier to consume, but capsules are easier for travel." Walgreens sells it online only.WARNING: WebMD recommends not exceeding 40 grams daily. In my experience, in the middle of day 3 of loading, I had an attack of abdominal pain and visited the ER. The diagnosis is not certain at this point (a type of gastritis), but the doctor advised stopping L-glutamine supplementation. My BUN and protein levels were also above normal. You MUST drink way more water than usual when taking proteins. Track it carefully and don't just rely on drinking when thirsty or "often enough".4. creatine monohydrate, 3.5g upon waking and before bed for the entire 28-day duration, to increase maximal force production and protein synthesis. Creatine comes in different forms:

Micronized creatine monohydrate is the best bang for the buck, according to Examine, which has all you'd want to know about creatine Tim says "If you use powder, mix 5-6 grams total, as losing 1 or 2 grams in solution is hard to avoid." (but he's probably not talking about micronized creatine) Micronized creatine is a form of creatine whose particles are smaller (10x-20x), which makes for much better absorption. You can just take it with water.

pills - some people suggest they may not digest in the stomach, and you'd do well to bite them before swallowing. Just don't bother with any other forms. Get micronized monohydrate.

Creatine is awesome, get it.

Exercises

"More than four hours per month of gym time is not necessary to reach your target weight in record time. Flip the growth switch and go home." (p. 190) With your newfound time, focus on eating.

1. Record all settings on your machines (e.g. hole number in the sliding seat adjustment) and standardize the movement. Control all variables that should not change between exercises (form, seat adjustment, rest time etc.)

2. Use the "locked position" to protect your shoulders in all weight-bearing exercises: pull your shoulder blades back and push them down towards the hips 1-2 inches. If you are lying down on your back and someone pulls your arm up, then your whole body should follow instead of just the arm and a (dislocated) shoulder.

3. One-Set-To-Failure: Follow Arthur Jones' general recommendations for one-set-to-failure (80-120 seconds of total time under tension per exercise set), for 7 or more reps (the leg press is to be performed at 10 or more repetitions at the same cadence). Do not just drop the weight when you hit failure. Hold it at the limit for 5 seconds. Then slowly lower it for 5-10 seconds. "Do not underestimate the severity of complete failure. [Failure is pushing as if] you had a gun to your head." The last rep is the one that matters. If you feel you could do another set a minute later, you didn't reach failure. "Contrary to widespread belief, this is not the point at which the individual thinks they cannot complete any more repetitions, but rather the first repetition that fails due to inadequate muscular strength." -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strength_training#Progressive_overload4. 5/5 Cadence: "Perform every repetition with a 5/5 cadence (5 seconds up, 5 seconds down) to eliminate momentum and ensure constant load." The only exceptions to the cadence rule are the abdominal exercises and the kettlebell swing.

5. Do not pause at the top or bottom of the movements.

6. Between exercises, "[t]ime 3 minutes exactly with a stopwatch." (p. 203). This means that if you work out with a partner, you must very carefully alternate exercises (so that they do their workout during your rest time of 3 minutes and vice-versa), or you just do both exercises, then they do both their exercises. Don't let the 3 minutes blend into 3 and a half. "This is nonnegotiable."

7. If you complete the minimal target number of reps for all exercises (except abs and kettlebell swing), increase the weight the next workout 10lbs or 10%, whichever is greater. If that feels too easy after 2-3 reps, stop, wait 5 minutes, then increase 5-10 more lbs.

8. If you fail before 7 reps (or 10 for the leg presses), do not decrease the weight and do another set. Just leave, take one day off, then com back 48 hours after your failure. (p. 217)

9. Increase recovery time along with size. "The bigger and stronger you get, the less often you will go to the gym" because your body needs more time to repair a 20lb muscle vs. its 10lb predecessor. (p. 204)

There are two workouts (A and B) that you will alternate. Each workout consists of two primary lifts, which can be done using either machines, or free weights. I chose the machines because they minimize the number of variables I have to control for (posture, grip etc.) and drastically reduce the risk of injury.

Do only one set of each exercise - to failure; then go home. You don't need to spend more than 7 minutes per day in the gym - really.

The temptation to add exercises will be enormous. Don't do it. If anything, if you've never been able to gain mass, you might choose to do less.

Workout A (machine option)

1. supinated (palm facing you) pull-down INCLUDEPICTURE "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/PulldownMachineExercise.JPG/250px-PulldownMachineExercise.JPG" \* MERGEFORMATINET

Close-grip x 7 reps (5 seconds up / 5 seconds down)

2. Machine shoulder press x 7 reps (5/5). Tim has palms face forward

3. (optional) abdominal exercises from "Six-minute abs"

Workout B (machine option)

1. Slight decline (< 20 degrees) bench press x 7 (5/5). Tim shows a Hammer Strength machine like the one in this video. You need to select the one that simulates a decline bench press. Alternatively, you can roll a towel or put a book under your lower back to simulate the decline. Your knuckles should be one fist-width above your chest at the bottom of the movement. Also pause 1 second at the bottom, without touching the weight stack. For my first trial of the protocol, I did a Smith decline bench press instead (women's video).

2. Leg press x 10 (5/5). Tim shows a PRECOR sled machine.

3. Stationary bike x 3 minutes @ 85+ rpm (to minimize subsequent leg soreness)

4. Optional: kettlebell or T-bar swings from "Building the Perfect Posterior" x 50

Determine starting weights (p. 215)

Perform sets of 5 reps in each exercise with 1 minute of rest in between. Cadence: fast and controlled on the rising, 2-3 seconds on the lowering. Do not perform more than 5 reps per set. If you can lift more, wait 1 minute, increase the weight 10lbs or 10% (whichever is less), and retry. Repeat until you complete fewer than 5 steps.

After you fail to finish 5 reps, calculate 70% of your last full 5-rep set (except for the shoulder press - use 60%) and round up or down to match an existing weight. Take 3 minutes rest and perform a 5/5 cadence set-to-failure with that weight.

Take 5 minutes of rest, and repeat for the second workout.

Schedule

1. Start with 7 days without any body resistance or weight training.

2. Workout A, then two days off

3. Workout B, then two days off

4. Workout A, then two days off

5. Workout B, then three days off

6. Now keep resting for three days between workouts, as you keep alternating among A and B.

7. "As soon as you have a workout where more than one exercise has stalled, but not before, increase to four days between workouts."

8. Continue adding rest as needed to resolve plateaus until you hit your target weight or end your bulking cycle.

This schedule assumes that you consume enough food to support rapid growth. The vast majority of those who fail to gain, do so because of insufficient eating (as you can also see from the comments that the bottom of this page - in my first trial I ate way too little).

Diet

The generally-accepted basic idea for muscle gain, is that you need to eat A LOT. You'll gain both fat and muscle, and you'll have to shed the fat later; gaining just muscle is very hard.

The meal composition is nearly identical to the Slow-Carb Diet, as are the tenets, though we now add a starch such as brown rice or quinoa to the non-shake meals. The choice is yours: eat big or eat often. Fat gain will be slightly more with the former, and inconvenience will be much greater with the latter. Pick one and make it your religion for four weeks. It's easy to lose a little extra fat later.

How to track your food intake

There are lots of websites and smartphone apps that let you track food intake. The main problem with them is that the nutrition data either lacks for your foods, or is submitted by users, who often get it wrong.

I followed a low-tech approach this time and used an Excel spreadhseet with lots of foods from Trader Joe's.

More information about what tools people use to track their diet is on the Quantified Self Forum.

Calories

Ensure that you are eating 20 calories per pound of lean bodyweight for 10 pounds more than your current lean bodyweight. Note that this is not necessarily your ultimate target weight (assuming you want to gain more than 10 pounds). Adjust this target number on a weekly basis.

Example: 120lb lean mass + 10lb = 130lb target lean mass. Times 20 => eat 2600 calories.

Generally, if you just eat a lot, including milk and shakes, "You don't need to count calories" (p. 217).

Healthy high-calorie items:

Almonds, walnuts, other dry fruit

Protein

From Geek to Freak: "Eat enormous quantities of protein (much like my current fat-loss diet) with low-glycemic index carbohydrates like quinoa, but drop calories by 50% one day per week to prevent protein uptake down-regulation."

It's not true that the body can only handle max. 30 grams of protein per meal. Daily total protein is more important than per-meal protein.

For muscular gain, Tim suggests at least 1.25g of protein per pound of current lean bodyweight. Example: for 120lb lean body mass, eat 150g of protein per day. (p. 191)

Drink water - 2.8% of your body weight

WARNING: Three weeks into my Occam's Protocol experiment, I had an abdominal pain attack and had to visit the ER (for the second time in my life; I don't just go to the hospital for anything). The diagnosis was not certain (a type of gastritis), but my BUN and protein levels were above normal. You MUST drink way more water than usual when taking proteins. Track it carefully and don't just rely on drinking when thirsty or "often enough".To avoid kidney problems associated with extra protein intake, and poor performance due to dehydration, drink extra water. Guidelines vary, but Anthony Ricciuto recommends as many ounces as your body weight in kilograms. In less idiotic measurement units, drink 2.8% of your body weight. He also recommends increasing fiber intake: "It's hard to pack on size if you have a severe case of constipation. You may laugh, but this is one of the first things that happen to someone trying to gain weight. Many individuals increase their caloric and protein intake yet; they forget to do the same with their fiber and water."

The Wikipedia page on Strength training confirms the necessity of extra water:

Nonetheless, the deamination process creates urea, which places low, but consistent, strain on the nephrons. Failure to properly hydrate can result in an exaggeration of this effect. [24] [25]

Carbs

The book chapter doesn't give any specific guidelines for how much carbs you should eat.

Some sources say 1.5 - 3g per pound of body weight per day; others: 5-6g per kg of body weight (which is about the same).

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strength_training#Nutrition:

An adequate supply of carbohydrates (5-7g per kg) is also needed as a source of energy and for the body to restore glycogen levels in muscles.

Example:150lbs x 3g = 450g carbs / day.

This is more than DOUBLE what I ate in my 2011 trial. The minimum would be 225g carbs/day, again above what I ate every single day. No wonder I didn't gain much.So far (Nov 2013), this is my most challenging diet component. Some easy ways to up your carb intake:

Bread. My sandwiches usually consist of a slice of bread, one of ham and one of cheese. Double the bread and you double the carbs. Four such sandwiches jump from 60g to 120g. Low in sodium too.

Rice (more carbs per calorie than potatoes). Especially brown rice.

Cereal

Fruit, ice-cream, sorbets (at the expense of lots of sugar)

GOMAD - Gallon Of Milk A Day

If you fail to gain mass (at least 2.5lbs per week), add 2% organic milk between meals. Start with one liter a day. You can reach up to one gallon a day. Tim advises that even if you think you are lactose intolerant, start drinking a little organic whole milk, then gradually increase the quantity. You'll find that in a few days you'll be able to drink a cup of milk without problems.

See also this debated study: Drinking milk helps gain muscle and lose fat after exercise. It was done in 2007 on men (AJCN link), and apparently repeated in 2010 on women:

Consumption of fat-free fluid milk after resistance exercise promotes greater lean mass accretion than does consumption of soy or carbohydrate in young, novice, male weightlifters and 2005 its precursor Dietary Protein to Support Anabolism with Resistance Exercise in Young MenWe conclude that chronic postexercise consumption of milk promotes greater hypertrophy during the early stages of resistance training in novice weightlifters when compared with isoenergetic soy or carbohydrate consumption.

Milk: Two glasses a day tones muscles, keeps the fat away in women, study showsTim's favorite meal

Mix macaroni (preferably durum whole wheat) with a can of water-packed tuna and as much fat-free turkey/bean chili as you like, then microwave it for 1 minute on high for breakfast. Substitute quinoa for the macaroni for more protein. Add some whole milk or Irish butter for taste.

Cost

Cost varies with your weight and supplement stack. I haven't tallied it up yet, but I'd wager between $300 and $400 per month, given food prices in the San Francisco Bay Area. I shop mostly at Trader Joe's.

You need to eat anyway, and you should do the workout for one month and then apparently take a break or start a cutting cycle (this is a bit unclear in the book). So consider about $200 extra for gaining muscle like you haven't gained before.

Sleep

More sleep lets the body recover better. 8+ hours per night are recommended.

Informal studies suggest that workouts done in the evening lead to ~10% bigger muscle gains.

My results - does Occam's Protocol work?

I followed the exercise and diet guidelines in Occam's protocol for only 3 weeks, up to the point of getting admitted to ER, when my blood protein level was too high. After that, I continued training, but I drastically dropped the amount of protein intake, basically not following the diet.

Compliance

The compliance map to the right shows how well I managed to adhere to Occam's Protocol. I was focused on protein intake, and eating so many calories was difficult, so my total caloric intake was 84% of what was recommended (2500 calories a day, with one day per week at 50% calories).

I didn't know about recommended carb intake (because the Occam's Protocol chapter in the book doesn't mention it! I only found out about that later from other sources), so my carbs were whatever came with 150g of protein per day. Overall, I had 70% of the carbs I should have had (avg. 162g/day, out of recommended 230g).

Sleep is said to be a major factor in recovery, and I averaged a clearly low amount, 6.6 hours per night. I'm not sure what the recommended amount is, but let's say 8 hours.

Compliance was, then:

exercise: 100%

protein: 84%

carbs: 70%

sleep: 82%

non-weighted average: 84%Occam's Protocol Results

For maximum precision, I took before and after DXA scans with the same machine (at Premiere Scan, see above), and about at the same time of the day (3pm). Here are the results:

BeforeAfter 3 weeks+ / -

Body fat %21.8%22.6%+0.8% (+2.2 lbs)

Lean mass115.7 lbs117.7 lbs+2 lbs

Total weight153.4 lbs157.6 lbs+4.2 lbs

Occam's Protocol conclusions

In 19 days of doing Occam's Protocol, I gained 2lbs of muscle and 2 lbs of fat. By comparison, Neil Strauss (see the Claims section) allegedly would have gained 6.8lbs of muscle and no fat.

What would I do differently if I did this again?

1. Eat like a pig and score the indicated amount of calories and carbs a day as well, not just protein

2. Drink water - 2.8% of body weight

3. Sleep more

Still, I would not expect anything near the fantastic gains of Tim Ferriss or Neil Strauss.

So, does Occam's Protocol work? In my experience, with 84% compliance, I got only 29% of the advertised muscle gain, plus 2.2lbs of "bonus" fat.

From Geek to Freak (for advanced trainees)

WORK IN PROGRESS - I haven't done this yet, so information is incompleteSee Tim's log on bodybuilding.com, and/or buy the 4-Hour Body book.

Supplements

Morning:

NO-Xplode (2 scoops), except one day a week. Available at Vitamin Shoppe.

Slo-Niacin (or timed-release niacinamide, 500mg). Available at Walgreens. Make sure to take the niacin with food, because it can cause flushing on an empty stomach.

Each meal:

ChromeMate (chromium polynicotinate, not picolinate, 200mcg). Food Science Labs is approved by ConsumerLab but available only online from Vitamin Shoppe.

alpha-lipoic acid (200mg). Solgar at Vitamin Shoppe comes in 200mg capsules and is approved by ConsumerLab. Page 208: 300mg, 30 minutes before each whole-food meal.

Pre-workout: BodyQUICK (2 capsules 30 minutes prior). Note: this supplement seems heavily advertised by Ferriss. Available primarily from Bodybuilding.com, then from obscure sources.

Post-workout: Micellean (micellar casein protein) - a meal replacement product, discontinued everywhere, even on Bodybuilding.com (in Jan 2006!), to which Tim links. Replacements seem to include OPTIMUM NUTRITION 100% CASEIN PROTEIN VAN 4LB. Available at GNC for ~$82 vs. $57 on Amazon and ~$25x2 at Vitamin Shoppe. "Casein demands a blender" (Amazon reviewer) and mixing it with a shake bottle or spoon will leave clumps.

Prior to bed:

policosanol (23mg) - sugarcane extract supposed to improve cholesterol profile, but only studies done in Cuba by a group with a financial relationship to the product showed that. Wikipedia lists many references that confirm the story. Available from GNC if you insist.

ChromeMate (200mcg)

alpha-lipoic acid (200mg)

Slo-Niacin (500mg)

Exercises

(updated from Bodybuilding.com) Focus on 2-10 exercises per workout. The sequence Tim used is at http://www.fourhourbody.com/geek-to-freak/. "Take at least least 3 minutes of rest between exercises." (p. 186).

Revision by Dan Dascalescu, 2013-12-01

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Copyright 2009-2014 Dan Dascalescu

Session Notes from Tim Ferrisss 4 Hour Body Talk at #SXSWiPosted on March 13, 2011by hertling(Aside: Here is my one page cheat sheet for the 4 Hour Body fat loss.)

Tim Ferriss

4 Hour Body

4 Hour Body

More than 10 years of data gathering and data crunching, and 3 years of intensive experiments

holy cow, watching video of muscle samples being taken

Science is a method.

You can find amazing scientists all over the world.

Richard Feynman: it doesnt matter how smart you are, how beautiful your theories are, it only matters what the experiment shows

Theres tons of stuff on fat loss, but what really works? The experimentation needs to be done.

Teenager could deadlift 400 pounds. She trained for 5 minutes a couple of times a week to achieve this.

Tracy, mother of 2, loss more than 120 pounds doing 2 or 3 exercise periods per week.

Patrick lost more than 120 pounds over the course of a year using slowcarb diet, and 2 cheat days per week.

4 First Princples

The Minimum Effective Dose:

Treat exercise and diet as a drug: use exactly the dose needed to get the quantified results.

Sample meds:

20 minutes of kettlebells swings, 3 times per week

30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up

1:30pm on the clitoris

90-120 seconds of tension for most muscles

focus on time under tension

1 set to failure

5 seconds to raise, 5 seconds to lower (removes momentum).

1,200 words for conversational fluency

usually identified my ministry of education

takes 8 to 12 weeks

The Extremes Inform the Mean, not Vice-Versa

Design firm working on garden shears: didnt want to know about the mean user. They wanted to know about the extremes: the parapalegic who was gardening. the elderly user. If they could design for the extreme, the middle will be taken care of.

Know Thy Worst-Case Scenario: ET, Staph, Emodin, and friends.

Prepare for worst-case scenario if you are going to do self-experimentation.

A simple injection ended up as a staph infection in Tims elbow which required hospitalization and intraveneous antibiotics.

Tracking + Loss Aversion > How To

The best protocol doesnt matter if you abandon it.

The Rules of Behavior Change

Make it conscious (flash diet and before pics)

People who use food diaries lose 3x as much weight as people who dont

People who take picture of food lose even more.

If you divided group into two and one half got a personal trainer, and one half used iPhone to take pictures, the iPhone group would lose more weight

Make it a game (Drucker and five sessions)

People who do something 5 times will keep doing it.

Rig the first 5 sessions so youll keep doing: go to gym for 15 minutes, not 3 hours.

Make it competitive (embrace loss aversion)

Make it small and temporary (MED, two weeks)

two weeks is something people can do

otherwise, people will take any lapse as an excuse to give up

Keep Improvement Relative

Its not about beating everyone else.

Its about making the biggest possible gains relative to yourself.

Questions

Q: What about the impact of eating meats?

A: Ethically raised meats are possible. Its possible to be lacto-ovo vegetarian and get enough fatty acids, but to be totally vegan seems to cause issues, reproductive and otherwise.

Q: What about these high achievers, type A personalities, how do they approach fitness?

A: They are tinkerers, experimenters. They track things. They may not have a complex system, but they have a pad of paper, and they keep track of it.

Q: What if were already doing yoga, and working out, and doing stuff beyond the MED. Are we hurting ourselves?

A: I view exercising as something to have a minumum effective dose, and seperate out recreation: going for hike, doing something for fun.

Also, sitting down does far more damage than doing some exercise or recreation.

If you dont have a competitive goal, then go nuts. If you are training for a marathon, than stick with the MED.

Q: For language acquisition, verb conjugation is very hard. What to do?

A: Vised.com: They do flashcards.

Japanese: common characters, 1300 characters.

Learn I want, I need, I like. If you tag these verbs with other verbs, you vastly expand your repitoire.

gruneberg: imagery for vocabulary. you can learn almost 400 words a day.

Q: From your new book, what could you apply back to the 4 Hour Work Week?

A: Richard Branson was asked what thing to do to be more productive, and he said work out

There is a lot to provide that exercise has a big positive impact on learning, cognitive ability, and productivity.

Using exercise/recreation to bracket your day: before and after.

Q: How to sleep less?

Experiment how to increase REM sleep.

Two tablespoons of almond butter, ensures you dont have low body sugar.

Polyphasic sleep: one 4 hour block, plus 20 minute naps.

Uberman Sleep: Just 20 minutes. Youll be completely asocial. If you miss one of those naps, you are fed.

Before trying to cut down on sleep, do an 80/20 analysis, and product analysis.

Q: Any plans for a workbook that puts all this together whats anecdotal versus experimental vs. broadly applicable.

A: Want to use sites that allow people to track health to compile data. Working on it.

Q: How do we take principles from the 4 Hour Body, and get people who are older, who are in midwest lifestyle, and get them to adopt it?

A: Its hard to fight with logic. Point to social studies: point to Tracey, and what she accomplished. Ask them to make one small change for 2 weeks.

Q: I am allergic to both eggs and most beans. What can I do?

A: Allergy tests are notoriously error prone. I have a friend who had an expensive allergy tests, and tests came back that he was allergic to 15 items. Have the tests done again before you make massive lifestyle changes.

Same test, same labs, different results.

You dont need eggs.

You can also create food allergies by eating the same foods over and over again for a long time. If you cycle off for 2 months.

Very lactose intolerent if he drinks pasturized/homogonized milk, and just fine if he drinks raw milk.

if you dont eat the beans, track the calories to make sure you are eating enough.

Q: Diagnosed with irregular heatbeat. Doctor said you are stuck with this for life.

A: Some fantastic doctors out there. But C=MD. As long as you pass your tests, you get an MD. There is always someone who is the worst in their class.

The average healthcare visit is 11 minutes. Many times a doctor doesnt or cant spend the time to work with you.

Get a second opinion.

Not always the doctors fault: they dont have the resources or reimbursement to do it.

Spend the money to see a good specialist.

Get a second opinion.

Try removing gluten from your diet, and see if that has any effect. Removing gluten gets rid of many issues.

Bulletproof Body

How much time have you spent being sick, working out, or struggling to find a way to lose fat?

If youre like most people, the answer is too much.

Being healthy is just as important for entrepreneurs, college students, and soccer moms as it is for elite athletes. It gives you more confidence, authority, and stamina. It helps you to live longer and healthier. Plus, it just feels good to know your body looks good.

More importantly, having a Bulletproof Body is the foundation for your resilience and energy levels. When your body is working right, you can get everything done at work and come home with energy to spend on whats important to you, whether its playing with your kids, studying, or even biohacking.

Flying around the world frequently, attending board meetings, creating corporate strategy, presenting to thousands of people, and running an awesome blog (shameless plug), then coming home to spend quality time with my young kids takes its toll. In order to manage all this without destroying my health, Ive hacked my body and mind to let me do more than most people think is possible.

Imagine if you could stay lean and muscular without spending time on exercise. Imagine being able to eat 4500 calories a day without having to burn it off. Imagine having hours of extra time that would normally be wasted being sick.

Now you can. If a typical dietitian or doctor were to look at my diet and (non) exercise regimen, theyd say I must be obese because I eat over 4500 calories a day and havent exercised in over two years. But if those exact same medical professionals examined me in person without knowing my exercise or diet, and they saw my shockingly low triglyceride levels (47) and high HDL (87), they would probably say I worked out several times a week and ate a low-fat, low-calorie diet. They would be dead wrong, because their assumptions about what makes people fat and what makes people muscular are simply incorrect.

According to my world-class anti-aging physician, Im in the lowest percentile for diabetes risk, heart disease, and cancer, despite being a high risk for all of those when I was 10 years younger. I have lower triglyceride levels than most anyone I know. How can I do it?

The methods are simple, effective, and easy. This plan is not meant to turn you into a bodybuilder (though I start to look like one after even one workout), triathlete, or Crossfit competitor. Youll need a lot more training and more carbs to become an elite athlete. But unless youre a paid athlete, you might want to consider the fact that you can look and feel great without needing to train like an elite athlete. By using this protocol, you can free up hours of time every week, which lets you be a professional father, student, or friend.

The Bulletproof Body plan is meant to provide you with the bare minimum to look awesome and stay healthy for life. This is the foundation for fitness and health. Even if youre not a hardcore athlete, this can serve as your default program for feeling and looking like you mean business.

Step 1: Eat A Bulletproof DietThe Bulletproof Diet is the foundation for health and fitness. It allows you to maintain muscle mass, lose fat, avoid disease, and delay aging. Depending on how well you choose to adhere to the diet, it can be all you need to maintain a Bulletproof Body. Most of your body composition is determined by what you eat (and what you dont eat!). Exercise can make up for a poor diet to some degree, but youll be fighting yourself the entire way. Which would you rather do: overstress you body by running marathons as a way to counter your bad diet, or eat more butter?

Exercise can be used to fill the gaps in an *almost* Bulletproof Diet. Maybe you cant find grass-fed meat or you cheat every now and then. Exercise can make up for a small level of toxin exposure or bad fats. Before getting into the exercise portion of the plan, there are three points that must be understood about the Bulletproof Diet.

1. Eat Lots

Long term calorie restriction is not an effective weight loss method and it has disastrous effects on your health and your brain. When I was 300 pounds, I ate 1500-1800 calories a day and worked out 9 hours a week. I didnt lose a pound if anything, I was gaining. Heres why:

a) Calorie Cutting

Restricting calories is a stressor. When your body is stressed and believes it is starving, it wants to hold on to fat. By eating more, you tell your body its okay to burn fat.

b) Nutrient Deficiencies

Nutrient dense foods are often sacrificed when people restrict calories. Things like grass-fed butter, fatty pasture raised meat, and organs have highest nutrient content of any food. Theyre also high in calories, which is why misinformed calorie-fearing people avoid them. Without proper nutrients, your body wont efficiently burn fat or build muscle. Eat nutrient dense foods like those on the Bulletproof Diet and ignore the calories. Its food quality and composition that matter, not volume.

c) Low-Calorie Junk Food

In order to cut calories, many people resort to things (Im not going to call them foods) like 100 calorie snack packs, diet soda, and fat free yogurt. Big mistake. These foods might be lower in calories, but they make you crave more food. They dont satisfy your appetite or provide nutrition. They contain toxins that will impede your fat loss goals and make you sick. Refined and packed food products make you fat. Youre better off to go hungry seriously than to eat these junk foods.

2. Maintain High Healthy Saturated Fat Intake

Eating a high fat diet teaches your body to burn fat instead of sugar. It also keeps you satisfied which prevents cravings. Make sure youre eating high quality fats not vegetable oils or peanut butter. Saturated fat like coconut oil and grass-fed butter will not cause hardened arteries; they help your brain and body perform and look better. Fats are needed for the formation of sex hormones like testosterone and human growth hormone. A high fat diet prevents blood sugar swings and low energy. When in doubt eat more fat. I eat 60% of my calories from fat, and often have a meal that is only fat, which keeps my metabolism ready to burn fat for fuel.

3. Avoid Toxins

One of the reasons the Bulletproof Diet is different from a regular paleo diet is the special attention to toxins. Xenoestrogens, mycotoxins, and other substances can act as obesigens (compounds that make you fat). Plastics can leach BPA into your water which disrupts hormone production. Molds and fungi produce mycotoxins that can be in your food, your house, or your gut. Watch this video to learn how to avoid mycotoxins.

Step 2: Sleep

Sleep is one of the most important aspects of maintaining a Bulletproof Body. Without proper sleep, your body wont repair muscle tissue, burn fat, or recover for the next day.

Poor quality sleep = hungry, distracted, weak, sick, and fat.

Through various techniques, Ive been able to hack my sleep to the bare minimum. This is after wrecking my adrenals by doing it wrong. One of the reasons I can sleep so little it because Im healthy. If youre currently obese or struggling with body fat issues, you cant afford to limit sleep. Dont try to sleep five hours a night and lose 100 pounds at the same time it wont work. And dont try to start a weight training program while cutting sleep either.

Athletics & Sleep Hacking Dont Mix

If youre exercising, you need to sleep much more than a sedentary individual. Muscle tissue doesnt repair unless you get adequate Delta (deep) sleep. Aside from my two-year long no-exercise experiment, one of the reasons I dont exercise regularly is that I would have to sleep a lot more. A 20 minute workout can increase your sleep needs by over three hours. Sleep as long as you need if youre exercising more than two times per week. If you want to hack your sleep, do it right read our articles on sleep hacking. This is not an area where you can afford to be reckless. Sleep deprivation can cause severe adrenal fatigue, cortisol imbalance, and long term neurological/endocrine damage. But having an extra 4 hours a day is priceless.

Step 3: The Bulletproof Exercise Guide

Exercise isnt the most important part of achieving your desired body. If done improperly as in marathons it will cause more harm than good. However, exercise does offer a number of advantages. Exercise improves bone density, mood, blood lipids, and increases insulin sensitivity and lean muscle. It can also decrease inflammation and help you sleep.

Exercise is simply not a way to burn calories directly; that faddish way of thinking makes no sense if you pay attention to your body. Your body composition is not determined by the amount of calories you eat; it is determined by hormones. Therefore, exercise should be viewed as a way to influence hormones, not as a method for burning calories. You are not a gasoline engine and you do not burn anything for energy. If we actually did burn things, wed all be eating coal, which burns well and is high-calorie.

Proper Exercise? Correct Hormone Balance? Burn Fat & Gain Muscle There is a point of diminishing return with exercise. More exercise will not always lead to more benefits. Most people over-exercise.

Exercise sessions should generally be no more than 20 minutes, and they should be VERY high intensity.

Perform no more than one exercise session per week if youre sleep hacking.

Workout up to three times per week otherwise.

If you arent getting high quality sleep, dont even consider exercise.

Bulletproof Exercise

It is possible for you to stay lean with any combination of nutrition or exercise when they are done properly, but combining the two creates the best overall health. From a Bulletproof perspective, that means you use the most efficient techniques that get the job done in the smallest amount of time and effort.

Youve probably seen how we do that with the Bulletproof Diet. Here is its companion the Bulletproof Exercise Guide.

This isnt an all encompassing fitness manual. It gives you a basic framework which you can use to stay fit in the least possible amount of time, far less than even The 4-Hour Body, Tim Ferriss most awesome guide, which you should own for sure if you have enough interest to read this post this far. By comparison, Bulletproof Exercise would be The Forty Minute Body.

There are two parts of the Bulletproof Exercise guide:

Exercise & Activity.

Part 1: Exercise

Exercise has a specific definition. To quote Dr. Doug McGuff, a gifted biohacker and author of Body by Science:

Exercise is a specific activity that stimulates a positive physiological adaption that serves to enhance fitness and health. It does not undermine the latter in the process of enhancing the former.There are five keys to Bulletproof exercise. Make it:

1. Brief

2. Intense

3. Infrequent

4. Safe

5. Purposeful

Anything that does not meet these criteria is not exercise. Marathons, Ironmans, ultra endurance events, and even Crossfit are not exercise based on these criteria for the simple fact that they do not optimize health while creating fitness. They are immensely challenging and require great physical and mental strength, but they are their own separate entities not to be confused with exercise. Being fit or being able to compete in a specific sport does not mean you are healthy.

No matter how fit you are, you wont achieve Bulletproof resilience and power unless youre healthy.

Sure, you may become healthier by doing something like Crossfit, and youll certainly become more fit, but it simply isnt the best way to do so. There are better methods.

The most effective and efficient form of exercise is outlined in the book Body By Science. It is a weight training protocol which fatigues muscle fibers in sequence to produce the best adaptions in the least amount of time about 40 minutes per month.

This page outlines the basic concepts. For a detailed description of this method, please read Body By Science. It belongs on the shelf of any self-respecting biohacker (or athlete).

Heres what a workout looks like

1. Each workout uses only 3-5 compound movements (listed below).

2. You perform only 1 set of each movement per workout.

3. You take each set to the point of positive muscular failure. This is the point where the weight wont move anymore no matter how much effort you apply. Each set will last 90-120 seconds.

4. The weight should be heavy enough (usually 75-85% of your 1 rep max) that you will reach muscular failure somewhere between 1.5 and 2 minutes.

5. The weight is moved at a slow tempo for the duration of each set. This should be 6-10 seconds concentric (raising), and 6-10 seconds eccentric (lowering). The movement should be as slow as possible without becoming a series of starts and stops.

6. The next movement should be performed as soon as possible after the completion of the previous one. The time between movements should not exceed 2 minutes.

7. Each workout should not exceed 20 minutes.

8. This workout is performed every 7-14 days. Volume should bereducedif training stalls not increased.

Key Points

Breathe through your mouth throughout each exercise without holding your breath.

Cardio is not necessary for improving cardiovascular function. In most cases, it is detrimental to health and practiced for the wrong reasons (to burn calories). It is impossible to isolate one aspect of fitness (cardiovascular system, muscular system, aerobic system, etc.). Even if it was, it would not be beneficial. The goal is global metabolic conditioning as Dr. McGuff says.

There is nothing wrong with using a different program, but this is the most efficient method for most people.

This program will benefit everyone from stay at home moms, to elite athletes, to entrepreneurs. Stronger is better.

This program (or any program) will not substitute for sport specific goals like running, cycling, swimming, hockey, etc. In order to become better at a given sport you must perform that exact sport.

Seriously, dont hack your sleep for the next 3 nights after you exercise. Its not safe.

Why Weight Training Is The Best Form of Exercise

1. It meets all the requirements outlined above for proper exercise.

2. It increases lean muscle mass which is going to make you healthier in almost every way.

3. Strength training boosts insulin sensitivity and metabolic rate for days and increases your testosterone and growth hormone levels (including healthy amounts for women).

4. Having more muscle allows you to perform with more confidence and pride.

5. Resistance training decreases your risk of injury and facilitates healthy aging.

6. It makes you more resilient to fatigue, disease, pathogens, and toxins.

7. Its fun.

The Big 5 Movements

The following movements are the only ones necessary for most people. They should be performed using machines since reaching muscular failure under free weights is dangerous. There are free weight variations which can be found in the book. (Im a fan of using kettle bells sometimes too.) Watch the video for demonstrations of proper technique on each movement.

1. Seated Row

2. Chest Press

3. Pull Down

4. Overhead Press

5. Leg Press

The Body by ScienceBig Five Overview Part 1

TheBody by ScienceBig Five Overview Part 2

Common Thinking Errors About Fitness & Health

This is a great video for anyone interested in the best ways to perform better in any way.

This workout program is not the be all and end all of exercise. It is simply the most effective form that works for the most people in the least amount of time. Here are two more methods which fit the definition of exercise:

Enter The Kettlebell! Strength Secret of The Soviet Supermen by Pavel Tsatsouline

Starting Strength, 3rd Edition by Mark Rippetoe

Part 2: Activity (MOVE!)

Walking, hiking, surfing, and carrying groceries are purposeful and safe activites, but they are not brief, infrequent, or intense. They are not exercise they are physical activities. Exercise makes you better at moving. Low level physical activity has numerous health benefits. It decreases your risk of metabolic syndrome, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, and vascular dementia. It also decreases overall systemic inflammation, which contributes to almost all known diseases. Moderate physical activity also decreases the incidence of colds and improves mood in people who are depressed. In healthy people, easy movement can improve mood for 2 hours afterwards. It also improves mitochondrial function.

Most people dont know about one of the most important health reasons to move frequently, which is lymphatic circulation. Lymph is the fluid that your body collects from interstitial fluid, the fluid that lies between cells. You have an entire lymphatic circulation system designed to return dead cells, proteins, and excess interstitial fluid back to the circulation system for removal. Lymph helps to remove some bacteria, cancer cells, and toxic metabolites, and also transports fats from the digestive system.

Unlike your cardiovascular system, the lymphatic system has no central pump, so lymph moves only from alternate contraction and relaxation of muscle, valves, and compression when you flex nearby muscles. So you need to move to help your body carry off excess toxins and fluid. After all, excess interstitial fluid will give you muffin top long before abdominal fat will.

Even if you exercise, people who sit more than 6 hours a day are 40 percent more likely to die in the next 15 years. The fact that sitting burns only one calorie per minute isnt why its bad for you. Sitting decreases HDL cholesterol and blood flow. It decreases electrical signaling in your leg muscles and causes functional shortening of tendons and ligaments.

Low level aerobic activity has been shown to improve insulin signaling, reduce stress, inflammation, and boost longevity. It reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and dementia, and even the common cold. Move at a slow pace as much as possible.

4 Ways To Move More

1. The most Bulletproof (maximum benefit, minimum time) way to get in a days worth of moving is to use Whole Body Vibration. Standing on a rapidly vibrating plate for 15 minutes every day or two will cause massive lymph circulation throughout your body and move oxygen to tissues that may not get very much of it, even areas youre unlikely to reach while walking around. It has other benefits that simple movement doesnt have, like stimulating bone strength and firming muscles and skin.

2. Work at a standing desk or (my favorite) sit on an inflatable ball. Only use a standing desk if your body can comfortably stand all day first. Most people need to see a functional movement specialist (or a biohacker who uses measurement technology) to correct their posture. Standing with poor posture all day is bad for you because it raises stress levels.

3. Take every opportunity to move (lift things for people, walk instead of driving, take the stairs, etc).

4. Do fun things that involve moving: hiking, gardening, playing with your kids, etc.

Step 4: Supplement Smart

There are numerous supplements that can improve fat loss, muscle gain, immune function, and performance. Here are several that almost anyone can benefit from.

Vitamin D

1000 IU / 25 pounds (~11kg) of bodyweight. Supports immune function.

Allows proper tissue formation.

Improves exercise performance.

Acts as a pro-hormone in the body.

Magnesium Citrate

400-800mg / day. Needed for bone formation.

Relaxes blood flow and reduces stress.

Improves cardiac function.

Enhances mitochondria activity.

Glutathione Force

(I manufacture this supplement with a new technology for maximum absorbption)

Protects your body from free radicals and helps maintain healthy toxin levels.

Mitigates much of the negative effects of air pollution, over-exercise, and lack of sleep.

Supports healthy liver function.

Brain Octane Oil or Upgraded XCT Oil

One or more tablespoons per day. Promotes fat loss.

Enhances insulin sensitivity.

Increases metabolism.

The Bulletproof Diet may be all you need to maintain muscle mass and look good naked. Sleep should be your next priority, and then a moderate level of movement and exercise. Supplementation is a good idea for almost everyone.

If you enjoyed this article and are thinking about purchasing one of the supplements, please consider supporting the blog by buying from our small business: UpgradedSelf.comHow to Get 30 Grams of Protein Within 30 Minutes of Waking Up

by StephenThis is a companion to my previous post.

The 30/30 Rule for Accelerated Fat LossDirections: Consume 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up! Do not make any changes to your diet or exercise!How to get 30 Grams of Protein in 10 minutes or less!Some Real Food Options:1. Liquid Egg Whites have roughly 26 grams of protein per cup. Microwave (or cook) for 2.5 minutes in a Pyrex dish. Then microwave 150 grams of frozen spinach for 5 minutes to get another 6 grams of protein. Then add your favorite salsa. This makes for 32 grams of protein in less than 10 minutes.2. Canned Tuna + 1 or 2 eggs (or egg whites): Chuck it all in a pan with some mushrooms, cayenne pepper and Italian herbs and put it in the oven till its done.3. 3/4 cup of your favorite beans (8 grams protein) + White or Red Onions (chopped) + 3 eggs (18 grams protein) or liquid egg whites and salsa or Cholula.The Quick Fix (less than 3 minutes)1. One Scoop Whey Protein Concentrate in milk (not slow carb) or in water. Add a handful of raw almonds if you like.2. One protein bar of choice orbuild your own.3. Ice + Coffee + Whey Protein Concentrate + scoop egg protein powder (staying powder) + cinnamon (this video is even more complex) mixed in blender.4. Ready-made protein shakes. Pure protein or Myoplex are decent options (among many others).5. Ready-made zero carb 40 gram protein drink. (light and not filling)* P.S. You can make great smoothies with an immersion blender. They are simple to use and even easier to clean. My personal favorite is this lightweight and inexpensive Cuisinart Immersion Blender. I use it almost daily and it has quickly become my favorite kitchen appliance.30/30 Rule Quick Fix Protein IdeasQuick Link to Products on Amazon (or click on the picture)

HYPERLINK "http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015R26V8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0015R26V8&linkCode=as2&tag=4hourlife00-20"

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Protein Composition of Common Foods (To find a foods nutritional composition consult myfitnesspal) 1 egg = 6 grams

StarKist Chunk Light Tuna 5oz = 20 grams

Eggology cup = 13 grams

Gold Standard Whey Protein1 scoop = 24 grams

Isopure Zero Carb 1 scoop = 50 grams

Isopure Ready-made zero carb protein drink= 40 grams

Milk 1% 1 cup (8oz) = 8 grams (not slow carb)

Black Beans cup = 8 grams

Pinto Beans cup = 8 grams

Refried Beans cup = 7 grams

Spinach: Cooked, Boiled and Drained 1 cup = 5 grams

Organic Peanut or Almond Butter 1 tbsp. = 8 grams

Pistachios 1 oz. (2 tbsp.) = 6 grams

Raw Almonds handful = 7 grams

The Insulin Advantage

How to Bulk and Cut on the Same Day

Forget the outdated idea of months-long "bulking" and "cutting" phases that the newbies love to talk about. Instead, bulk and cut throughout the day, maximizing muscle gains while controlling body fat.

How? By manipulating insulin.

Depending on your background, you probably think of insulin as either the anabolic Holy Grail or the natural enemy of fat loss. Which is it? Let's find out.

Insulin is Like a Woman

It's human nature to label something as good or bad, but this myopic outlook often does us more harm than good. You'd think we would've learned this lesson in the 80s when we erroneously demonized dietary fat, but alas, we humans tend to be slow learners.

Those passionate about fat loss label insulin an evil bastard of a hormone that's making us chubby by inhibiting fat burning and promoting fat storage. On the other hand, those focusing on muscle building label insulin's anabolic and anti-catabolic actions as nothing short of magical.

How can a simple hormone be a fat boy's nemesis anda skinny boy's secret weapon?

The truth is, insulin is like a woman: sometimes she loves you, sometimes she hates you. But the good news is that unlike a woman, we can accurately predict how insulin will act.

Know Your Opponent

Insulin is an anabolic hormone. In fact, it's even more anabolic than growth hormone. The problem is, it's indiscriminately anabolic and doesn't care whether it helps promote the building of muscle or the accumulation of fat.

But you can't blame insulin. After all, it's just a hormone doing its job. And its primary job is to maintain safe and steady blood glucose levels of around 80-100mg/dl.

So when blood glucose levels rise above 100, insulin is secreted by the pancreas. Then, ever-so-helpful insulin "picks up" the extra glucose out of the blood and takes it to a storage depot for safe keeping.

There are three different storage depots for this extra glucose: muscle glycogen, liver glycogen, or adipose tissue. Of course we prefer storage in the former rather than the latter, but the reality is that insulin doesn't care. It'll simply do what it's programmed to do.

So let's look at exactly what insulin is programmed to do.

The Good

1. Insulin Builds Muscle

Insulin stimulates protein synthesis by directing ribosomes to make more protein. If that sentence didn't give you muscle-building fans at least partial wood, then I need to explain.

Muscle is made of protein. Protein is manufactured by ribosomes. Ribosomes are turned on by insulin. Allow me to quote Guyton and Hall's Textbook of Medical Physiology:

"In some unexplained way, insulin 'turns on' the ribosomal machinery. In the absence of insulin, the ribosomes simply stop working, almost as if insulin operates an 'on-off' mechanism."

So does this mean that insulin "helps" build muscle? No, it means that insulin is required to build muscle.

2. Insulin Inhibits Catabolism of Protein

Insulin inhibits the breakdown of muscle. Although it may not seem as exciting, the anti-catabolic nature of insulin is every bit as important as its anabolic nature.

Anyone with financial intelligence will tell you it doesn't matter how much money you make; it only matters how much money you keep. The same goes for muscle.

Every day, your body synthesizes some protein and breaks down some protein. Whether or not you gain muscle mass over time is like a physiological math game. To build muscle, you must synthesize more protein than you catabolize. It's like keeping more money without making more money.

3. Insulin Transports Amino Acids into Muscle Cells

Insulin actively transports certain amino acids directly into the muscle cells. Guess which amino acids get this special treatment? That's right BCAA! Branched-chained amino acids are personally escorted into muscle cells by insulin, a very good thing if you want to build muscle!

4. Insulin Increases Activity of Glycogen Synthase

Insulin increases the activity of the enzymes (i.e. glycogen synthase) which stimulate glycogen formation. This is very important as it helps ensure the storage of glucose in muscle cells, thereby improving performance and recovery.

In more immediately tangible terms, muscle glycogen formation results in much fuller, denser-looking muscle.

So far so good, but what about the other side of the coin?

The Bad

1. Insulin Inhibits Hormone-Sensitive Lipase

Insulin inhibits an enzyme called hormone-sensitive lipase, which is responsible for breaking down adipose tissue. That's obviously not good, because if you can't break down stored fat (triglycerides) and turn it into a form that can be burned (free fatty acids), you're not going to get leaner.

2. Insulin Decreases Utilization of Fat

Insulin decreases utilization of fat for energy, and instead promotes the burning of carbohydrates for energy. To put that another way, insulin "spares fat."

Although that's not good for our body composition, it makes perfect sense when you recall that insulin's main function is to get rid of extra glucose in the blood. And insulin will accomplish this by both storing more carbs and burning more carbs.

3. Insulin Increases Fatty Acid Synthesis

Insulin increases fatty acid synthesis in the liver, which is step one in the process of gaining body fat. But, this is dependent upon the availability of excess carbs an amount above what is immediately burned or stored as glycogen.

4. Insulin Activates Lipoprotein Lipase

Insulin activates an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase. If you know a little medical terminology, this may sound good at first. After all, lipase is an enzyme that breaks down fat, so why wouldn't you want to increase it?

Recall that we just discussed how insulin increases fatty acid synthesis in the liver. Once those extra fatty acids are converted to triglycerides, they're picked up by lipoproteins (i.e. VLDL), dumped into the bloodstream, and told to go find a home.

The cool thing so far is that triglycerides can't be absorbed into adipose cells. So even though you may have ample triglycerides in your blood, you're not actually getting fatter... yet. That's where lipoprotein lipase comes in.

Once activated by insulin, lipoprotein lipase breaks down these triglycerides into absorbable fatty acids which are quickly and easily soaked up, converted back into triglycerides, and stored by adipose cells.

5. Insulin Promotes Glucose Transport into Fat Cells

Insulin promotes the transport of glucose across fat cell membranes and into the fat cells. As you can imagine, the story of excess glucose in fat cells doesn't have a happy ending. Guyton and Hall summarize:

"All aspects of fat breakdown and use for providing energy are greatly enhanced in the absence of insulin."

Notice they said fat breakdown and fat burning are enhanced in the absence of insulin.

Solving the Insulin Riddle

Insulin is simply an anabolic transport hormone that does its job. It's not good or bad. It doesn't care whether you gain fat or gain muscle. All it cares about is keeping blood glucose in the normal range. When blood glucose gets high, insulin will be secreted and will work quickly to restore normal serum glucose levels.

It's not up to insulin to secrete itself at the right time. It's up to YOU to stimulate insulin release at the right time, and in the right amount if you're really good. And there's a way to do just that.

First, decide where on the fat loss/muscle gain continuum you lie:

I Only Want Muscle Gain!

If your primary goal is to gain muscle, then you want high levels of insulin throughout the day.

You especially want high-insulin levels after training to take advantage of the fact that at that time, the muscle cell membrane is extra permeable to insulin and whatever it is carrying (i.e. glucose, BCAA).

I Only Want Fat Loss!

If your goal is strictly fat loss, then you want lower levels of insulin throughout the day, on average.

At first thought, some people think that having low insulin levels all day every day is the way to lose fat. But unless your idea of exercise is mall walking, you need a more intelligent strategy.

Even if you couldn't care less about gaining muscle mass, it's still important to initiate some insulin secretion post-workout. This will stop the training-induced catabolism as well as shuttle glucose and amino acids into the muscle cells. Otherwise you'll find yourself losing valuable muscle and therefore hampering the metabolic machinery that burns fat!

You don't want to look skinny-fat, do you? Well, that's exactly what you'll look like unless you routinely give your muscles much-needed carbs.

I Want to Gain Muscle and Lose Fat!

Now here's a goal everyone can relate to: gaining muscle and losing fat.

Sadly, most of us believed others when they told us that it wasn't possible to gain lean muscle while losing body fat. Conventional wisdom still says that one must alternate between "bulking" and "cutting" cycles to achieve more muscle mass with less body fat. But this so-called wisdom isn't so wise after all.

When blood glucose is high, insulin is secreted and glucose is stored in muscle glycogen or liver glycogen. When blood glucose is low, insulin secretion is diminished and fat becomes the body's primary fuel source.

Insulin is like a switch that controls from moment to moment whether we're burning fat or building muscle. It doesn't take a whole day for this change to occur. In fact, it only takes minutes!

What this means is that you can plan your day to have periods of time focused on building muscle and periods of time focused on burning fat. And you can manipulate the length of these periods to alter the rate at which you gain muscle and lose fat.

Want to gain muscle faster? Increase the amount of insulin you secrete. This is especially beneficial to do immediately after resistance training for many reasons, one of which is because insulin will not convert glucose to fat if it can first store it as glycogen. And after an intense weight-training session, both muscle and liver glycogen are depleted and ready to soak up serious glucose. So, don't be shy with the carbs at this time.

For even faster muscle gain you should also boost insulin levels another time or two throughout the day. You could accomplish this with a couple more carb-containing meals. You could either have one of these prior to training and one after, or both after training (and after your post-workout drink).

Then, in order to cover the fat loss part of this equation, keep insulin levels low during the remainder of the day.

Flip the Switch

Whether you're promoting muscle gain or maximizing fat loss, insulin is the switch you need to learn to flip: "on" for muscle gains, "off" for fat loss.

Whichever you choose, remember that the switch doesn't have to stay flipped up or down for months at a time. Choose to manipulate insulin on a daily basis and you can reap the benefits while avoiding the drawbacks.

Manipulate your hormones and turn your body into a Fat Burning Machine!

HORMONES:Hormones are responsible for how energetic we feel, how hungry we are, our sex drive, our metabolism and a whole heap more when trying to get a flat tummy and toned tush.

Take note of these key Hormones that can trigger fat storage and halt your fat burning process:

Insulin: Your pancreas produces insulin when your blood sugar levels increase more than about 1 teaspoon in your body. Insulin pushes the excess sugar in your blood into three available storage sights: the liver, glycogen stores in your muscle, and your fat cells.

If the liver and glycogen stores are already FULL (from a high carb diet) the remaining glucose in the blood is converted to FATTY ACIDS and most likely gets stored around your waist, your bootie, and your legs.

Learning to control insulin levels by reducing your consumption of trigger foods such as sugar, starchy carbs and caffeine is super important to help with fat storage in your body.

Glucagon:This hormone is produced in the pancreas and has the absolute opposite effect of insulin. When your blood sugar levels drop glucagon is released and triggers your fat cells to release their cargo to be used as fat. Glucagon is a good thing, and when you get your insulin under control it will help ensure your blood sugar levels dont dip too far into the red by forcing fat to be mobilized and used for fuel. Glucagon is our friend! Yeah for Glucagon!

Cortisol: The stress hormone produced by your adrenal glands, is also known as the primary fat storage hormone. Cortisol is part of the fight or flight response. Faced with a life or death situation, cortisol increases the flow of glucose (as well as protein and fat) out of your tissues and into the bloodstream in order to increase energy and physical readiness

to handle the stressful situation or threat. Reduce your cortisol levels if they are too high these 3 ways:

1. Get your sleep!

2. Get regular exercise!

3. Avoid Caffeine!

Testosterone:Testosterone is known as the male sex hormone, but did you know that it is present in women as well? Not only that but decreased levels of testosterone in both men and women has been linked to weight loss. Why is that? Muscle mass, of course.

Testosterone is a hormone that what allows our bodies to develop muscle mass. Increased muscle mass equals an increase in your bodys fat burning potential. Lower muscle mass slows your fat burn. An interesting little tid-bit is that in order for women to see an increased benefit from increased testosterone, estrogen levels have to be lowered as well.

Get your testosterone naturally

1. 1.Weight lifting increases muscle mass, which then increases natural testosterone production.

2. Get more zinc in your diet from green veggies

Estrogen:Estrogen, you know that hormone that women have a love hate relationship with? Estrogens responsibilities include regulating the female reproductive system and keeping female bodies ready for childbirth. Its responsibilities make it also a culprit in weight gain in women. Increased levels of estrogen prompt womens bodies to hold on to fat. Sneaky little hormone, we need it to keep our reproductive organs healthy, but too much of it will also make it harder to keep our waistline trim. Keep those Estrogen levels in check by.

1. You know it! Regular exercise.

2. Yes, get at least 8 hours of sleep each night.

Leptin:Leptin is an interesting hormone; its like an off switch for hunger. Leptin signals your brains hunger control center, the hypothalamus when your body has adequate stores of food energy. Seriously its name even means thin. Seems like increased levels of leptin would make us all thin right? Wrong, this little bugger of a hormone is contradictory. Overweight people tend to have a very high leptin level; only its not really doing its job. Web MD explains it best, The problem is that overweight people have large amounts of leptin, but their brains arent getting the important signal to stop eating.

How come the brain doesnt get it? That phenomenon is called leptin resistance,' says Lustig, who has done research on the subject. leptin resistance is similar to insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes, in which the pancreas produces large amounts of insulin, but the body doesnt respond to it properly. So there really is no use to take leptin supplements to loose weight, rather control and regulate your Leptin levels by reducing insulin resistance. See insulin for tips on that. One thing is for sure; leptin is a relatively new find so well be watching the research on this one and will keep you updated gang!

Ghrelin:Ghrelin is another of those complicated hormones. Its produced in the stomach and tends to slow metabolism and increase hunger. It the signal that our stomach is empty and would like some more food. Feed me! As more research is done, Ghrelin seems to change its function in obese people. The moral to this story is that obesity causes a malfunction in our hunger receptors. So in order to keep ghrelin functioning correctly, stick to a healthy diet.

Growth Hormone:Human Growth Hormone or HGH has been a controversial topic for many years. From its ban by sports organizations to whether supplements are effective, it is certainly talked about. HGH is found naturally in our body and does promote muscle recovery after workouts. It is found in higher concentrations in children because it is necessary for growth and development and declines, as we get older. This decline in GH is the reason that it is often touted as the anti- aging hormone. While there are instances where GH is prescribed, the over the counter supplements are not something I recommend and there is risk in improper use, but there are some ways to prompt the GH that is already in your system to be more effective. Ill bet you can guess what they are.

1. Training, train with weights to build muscle.

2. Sleep, our bodies produce much of our natural GH while we sleep, so 7-8 hours is critical.

3. Eat a high protein low glycemic index diet.

It is important to know how hormones affect your body when trying to lose weight. Next time you are at your doctors office, have him or her do a simple blood draw to check your hormone levels, information is power gang! We are always looking out for your health, its as simple as that!

How to manipulate your hormones

Your bodys own-brand drugs dictate everything from your mood to muscle mass. Make sure you get the right dosage with these tricks

Ghrelin

Controls: Hunger

Too low: Appetite for nothingBeing empty on the hunger hormone will harm your muscle growth in more ways than one: a deficiency inhibits HGH, which triggers gaining real size. Build up an appetite with interval training, which fires up HGH by up to 450% says Loughborough Uni.

Just rightYour appetite may be bang-on now, but ghrelin shoots up if you cut out food groups, says homrone therapist Dr Sohere Roked. So swerve the Dukan: including low-GI carbs along with your proteins suppresses ghrelin more effectively than fats. Swap nuts for oats if your weight loss stalls.

Too high: Insatiable hungerAlways famished? Sleep on it. A Stanford University study found losing as little as 3hr sleep raised ghrelin by 15%. Go to bed on two kiwis: its natural sedatives help you nod off 35% quicker (and be less inclined to eat last nights leftovers on the bus into work).

Cortisol

Controls: Stress response

Too low: Slow & sluggishIts the hormonal antihero, but cortisols poison is in the dose. If you lack energy, have low BP and catch every cold going, you could be falling short. On waking, take a 1000mg hit of vit C: it supports adrenal function to restore balance, says Dr Roked.

Just rightIf youre feeling fine, harness your bodys natural fluctuations. Cortisol spikes in your fasted state (ie pre-breakfast), which in turn triggers muscle growth, so avoid eating until after your morning work out.

Too much: Stressed-outA big cortisol dump makes you agitated and bigger around the belly. If 12hr shifts and punishing workouts are leaving you wired, put the kettle on: University College London found builders tea drops levels by 47% within an hour.

Serotonin

Controls: Your mood

Too low: On a comedownFeeling low and lethargic could signal you need a bigger hit of the happy hormone. But membership of the Prozac nation isnt mandatory. 5-HTP supps give more serotonin, while rhodiola extract helps it pass the blood-brain barrier.

Just rightKeep those good vibes flowing. In a study by Canadian scientists, men who did an hours cardio at 68% of their VO2 max doubled their levels of tryptophan, the precursor to serotonin. Bonus: it also boosts BDNF, your bodys intelligence drug.

Too high: Flying highA little too close to the sun, Icarus? Mixing stimulants such as cocaine with SSRIs or herbal mood-boosters like St Johns wort and ginseng can lead to serotonin syndrome, which will makes you confused and erratic (at best) or die (at worst).

Testosterone

Controls: Muscle & libido

Too low: Short on manpowerFat gain, feeling listless and a stuttering libido are signs youre lacking. Weight-training will jack your T up by around 50%, but go easy on the sports drinks afterwards: Endocrine journal found sugar decreases testosterone.

Just rightTurn your cycle to your advantage: levels of the male hormone peak in the morning, says Dr Roked, making this a good time for the gym. Avoid committing to big work decisions, though: high T makes us more willing to take risks, Cambridge University found.

Too high: Over-pumpedRoid-raging aside, elevated testosterone can also lead to hair loss, say Harvard researchers. Minoxidil is the only barnet-sparing drug currently approved by the FDA; a months supply will set you back 24 (boots.com).

Melatonin

Controls: Sleep

Too low: Up all nightBy now, you should know not to check your iProducts before bed (the blue light scrambles your hormonal circuits). A snack will help too melatonin is synthesized from the amino acid tryptophan, so a smoothie made with oats, yoghurt and banana is the new Horlicks.

Just rightIf your levels are sound and you want to keep it that way, watch what you drink. Beer and wine contain traces of melatonin. While the odd unit or two sends you off nicely, Epidemiologyfound that four or more does the opposite, reducing levels by 17%.

Too high: Hitting snoozeIf you stop yawning! just cant seem to throw off the sheets, it could be a symptom of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Using a full spectrum lamp (50 argos.co.uk) for 30min in the AM helps reset your circadian (nighttime) rhythm.

Name: Insulin

Controls: Blood glucose

Too low: Over-sweetened AKA insulin resistance causing thirst, low energy and eventually diabetes. The good news is, even without weight loss, a single bout of moderate cardio boosts sensitivity to the hormone by 40%, with the effects lasting two or three days, Canadian research found.

Just rightYoure a good candidate for experimentation. AJournal of Applied Physiologystudy into men with healthy insulin balance found alternate-day 20hr fasts for 15 days improved gluscose uptake, while other studies have linked it to higher HGH and longer life.

Too high: Sugar slumpYour sugar-mopping insulin is going above and beyond; hunger and dizziness are signs. As well as shelving the Skittles, examine you coffee habit: caffeine hacks your nervous system, compounding the effects of blood sugar imbalance.

Want to Get Lean? fix your Hormones

Want to get lean? Striping body fat is a very common goal that many people want to achieve but often get it wrong when implementing a training and nutrition program. The importance of manipulating and understanding your hormonal output is often overlooked while the overall function of the bodys hormones and performance would be improved by achieving a lower percentage of body fat. The key to achieving your goals and staying lean is to build muscle to increase your resting metabolic rate. The common approach to fat loss which has failed many people, is to eat less & exercise more. This approach doesnt work, especially in the long the run, as you are more likely to loose muscle tissue rather then fat and the key is to improve body composition by controlling your metabolism. Calories dont control your metabolism your hormones doInstead of counting calories we should focus on fixing our hormones by elevating testosterone productivity, increasing insulin sensitivity, lowering Estrogen and Cortisol levels and handling adrenal fatigue properly.

TESTOSTERONEis a key hormone for becoming lean, its the male sex hormone which is also responsible for building muscle tissue and burning fat. Females have lower amounts of testosterone which is the reason why they typically have less muscle mass and a higher percentage of body fat then men. As we get older testosterone levels in both men and women decreases which is why resistance training is vital to combat further muscle loss. Testosterone is a powerful hormone which has to be manipulated if you are going tomaximizeyour performance and improve your body fat percentage, so below are some of the most effective ways in which you can increase your testosterone levels whether you are male or female. The bulk of your weight lifting exercises should be big compound exercises which train several large muscle groups at once such as squats, deadlifts, rows and presses. By working with heavy weights and lower reps you will boost testosterone levels, so its important to lift heavy on the main lifts, try to use weights around 85 percent of your one rep max. You should perform high intensity strength training 3-6 times per week and limit each workout to 45-60 minutes. If you continue working out for longer periods of time than this you will have a negative effect as your testosterone levels decline after 45 minutes and you start to produce Cortisol which will actually decrease muscle tissue and increase fat storage. Avoid traditional slow paced cardio workouts as they can promote muscle loss through elevating Cortisol levels (stress hormone) therefore decreasing testosterone. Increase the intake of raw whole nuts such as almonds. Research has found that monounsaturated fats found in nuts and saturated fats found in coconut oil and grass fed beef can elevate testosterone levels. Avoid any processed foods and stick with organic produce. Eat adequate amounts of Omega 3 fats found in oily fish such asmackerel. Make sure you get 8-9 hours of sleep a night.ESTROGENis the female hormone which increases fat storage around the hips and chest producing poor body composition. However its the ineffective way we metabolise estrogen, which is directly linked to more serious illnesses such as prostate cancer and breast cancer. High levels of Estrogen in men and women are unfortunately common these days, which is usually due to poor food quality and the exposure to high levels of chemical estrogens in our daily lives through contact with things like plastic bottles, cosmetics and pesticides. Males need to decrease the levels of estrogen as much as possible, however women do need estrogen but must also keep it in check tooptimizefat burning. To improve your Estrogen Levels read the following top tips: Avoid commercially grown foods and eat more organic foods. This will limit the amount of pesticides in your diet which can increase estrogen levels. Limit drinking beer as the hops are linked to increasing the hormone Decrease body fat percentage through resistance training and interval training. Limit exposure to chemical estrogens such as cosmetics.CORTISOLis known as the bodys stress hormone which is secreted by the adrenal glands. Too much of it is common in todays population and promotes body fat storage while decreasing lean muscle tissue. Cortisol plays a role in many bodily functions but often men and women secret too much of it due to elevated stress levels leading to poor body composition so its vital we learn how to limit it, here is how Try to limit stress at work and at home by balancing your work load Limit each workout to 45-60 minutes workout 3-6 times per week using resistance and interval training rather then prolonged aerobic exercise. Exercise helps limit cortisol levels through the release endorphins. Get 8-9 hours of sleep per night Limit caffeine intake. You should be eliminating drinks like coke anyway but cups of coffee can increase cortisol too. Some people are more sensitive then others so if you are one of these people then stop drinking coffee. If you are less sensitive then 1-2 cups of black coffee can have some good health benefits. Cut gluten from your dietADRENAL FATIGUEis closely related to high cortisol levels. There are a number of aspects which lead to adrenal fatigue such as stress, lack of sleep, low blood sugar levels and poor diet. The adrenal glands dictate most of what goes on in the body, so when they become over worked we just cannot function properly making it impossible to get lean. This is how we can keep them working efficiently increase the intake of vitamin C reduce stress levels keep training sessions between 45-60 minutes get 8-9 hours sleep eat a well balanced nutrient rich diet.INSULINis known as a storage hormone and is secreted by the pancreas due to excess glucose in the bloodstream. If you learn to control the release of insulin you will find that becoming lean and adding quality muscle tissue becomes a lot easier. It promotes the uptake of glucose in the bloodstream for metabolism or storage in the muscle cell and liver, however if there isnt enough space left the glucose will be stored as fat instead. So if your cells fail to produce enough insulin or you become insulin resistant your glucose levels will soar and diabetes could be the end result. Poor insulin sensitivity suggests that your body cannot deal with carbohydrate well, meaning that carbs are more likely to be stored as fat rather then used as energy. The leaner and fitter you become the more insulin sensitive you will become and you will be able to process higher levels of carbohydrates. Heres how to improve your insulin sensitivity Males should try and reduce body fat to 15% and lower while women should aim for 22% and lower. Timing insulin is key so eat most of your carbohydrate intake post workout limit carbohydrate intake to 200grams or lower and up the protein intake resistance training and high intensity training should be completed 3-6 times per week for 45-60 minutes per session.If you learn to fix your hormones and continue with your training using a good progressive weight lifting program and well thought out nutrition plan you will notice lean gains relatively quickly.Good Luck!

Como ativar seus hormnios de emagrecimento

Sem Comentrios Alimentao, Perder peso / Emagrecer Treino Para Mulher Maio 31, 2013

Os quilos em excesso pesam no corpo e no fazem bem. por isso que existem mensageiros qumicos do prprio corpo que ajudam no controle de peso. Porm, por vezes, esses no funcionam corretamente e voc deve ativar seu funcionamento para ajudar no emagrecimento.

Os principais hormnios que podem favorecer o emagrecimento so aleptina, somatotropina e glucagon. O neurotransmissorserotonina tambm tem um papel importante nes